To prepare for catching Kantemir Balagov‘s Beanpole in Cannes (Un Certain Regard), last night I watched his 2018 film Closeness (Tesnota) on a Russian streaming site. At a cost of $5 and change, which I was actually charged twice for. English and Spanish subtitles included.
Undeniably grim, powerful and penetrating. A nominal kidnapping saga in the gloomiest small Russian town you could ever imagine, but the focus is mainly on family (a tight-knit Jewish community), despair and resentments. A grim but highly believable milieu. Stark realism gives way to stark miserablism. In many ways convincing, riveting, pause-giving. Very claustrophobic with what felt like too many suffocating close-ups (what a horrible place to live!) but that’s Balagov’s intention, his way of making you feel it. Which I respect.
I believed every minute of it, but the lethargic places it took me to. It left me feeling drained and numb, and saturated with a downish vibe. But with an eye-opening performance by lead actress Daria Zhovner, for sure.
At 118 minutes Closeness seems to drag on longer than necessary. A few scenes don’t seem all that essential to the narrative — they’re basically about Zhovner’s interior life — her feelings of indifference, nihilism. The “taut story tension aesthetic” certainly isn’t upheld start to finish. And that horrible Chechen-Russian snuff film footage from that infamous 1999 Tukhchar massacre. I’m not likely to ever forget the sight of a young Russian solder screaming for his life, and then…I can’t describe it any further.
Overall this is a tough, commendable film, but the despair overwhelms. That’s the basic idea, I realize — this is a story about a community stuck with themselves in more ways than one. Serious respect, not much affection.